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The differences between apparel designers and designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become an apparel designer, becoming a designer takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a designer has an average salary of $66,347, which is higher than the $65,467 average annual salary of an apparel designer.
The top three skills for an apparel designer include adobe illustrator, tech packs and sketch. The most important skills for a designer are sketch, customer service, and graphic design.
| Apparel Designer | Designer | |
| Yearly salary | $65,467 | $66,347 |
| Hourly rate | $31.47 | $31.90 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 46,436 | 52,433 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Average age | 37 | 38 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 12 |
Apparel designers, also known as clothing or fashion designers, conceptualize and produce items of clothing. They frequently specialize in one type of design, like active, casual, or evening wear. Typical duties include monitoring current fashion trends and forecast future ones, sketching new designs, choosing patterns and fabrics to utilize in garments, and supervising production. They may present items to creative directors, clients, or retailers to determine if the garments are to be conventionally designed or mass-produced.
A designer is someone who creates a master plan of the look or workings of something before it will be made. It could be tangible or intangible objects, products, procedures, laws, events, games, graphics, services, and even experiences. Designers are creative thinkers with a great eye to configure the skeletal and structural properties of the targeted output. They work in several fields, such as fashion, architecture, web graphics, and user experience. In spite of the variety of professionals in the design industry, all of them are artistic, passionate, inspiring, and emotionally connected to their projects and brands.
Apparel designers and designers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Apparel Designer | Designer | |
| Average salary | $65,467 | $66,347 |
| Salary range | Between $40,000 And $105,000 | Between $45,000 And $97,000 |
| Highest paying City | Richmond, CA | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | Nevada | Washington |
| Best paying company | Fanatics | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Technology |
There are a few differences between an apparel designer and a designer in terms of educational background:
| Apparel Designer | Designer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Most common major | Graphic Design | Graphic Design |
| Most common college | Cornell University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between apparel designers' and designers' demographics:
| Apparel Designer | Designer | |
| Average age | 37 | 38 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 32.8% Female, 67.2% | Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 7.3% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 11.9% Asian, 11.6% White, 63.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 18% | 13% |